surfresearch.com.au  pacific exploration, 1519-1780

SPARRMAN, Anders.
A Voyage round the World with Captain James Cook in HMS Resolution.
Introduction and notes by Owen Rutter. Wood-engravings by Peter Barker-Mill.
The Golden Cockerel Press, 1944. First English edition
This eye-witness account of a three-year voyage with Cook by the Swedish botanist had not previously been printed in English. Sandford also enthuses over Barker-Mill's 'collection of engravings which were revolutionary, and a highly successful step forward in the adaptation of the wood-engraving medium to modern art.

DAVID, Andrew
The Charts and Coastal Views of Capt. Cook's Voyages
Volume II: The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure 1772-1775
 Hakluyt Society London. 1992.

HOARE, Michael E.
THE TACTLESS PHILOSOPHER - Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-98)
Melbourne. 1976. Hawthorn Press., 1976. 1st Ed..
First biography of the German naturalist who sailed on HMS Resolution during the 2nd voyage of discovery of Captain Cook

Pacific images: views from Captain Cook's third voyage.
Hawaiian Historical Society, Honolulu, 1999.
Original account written in 1779.

Portlock, Nathaniel:
A Voyage Round the World but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America, 1785-1788.
London: John Stockdale and George Goulding, 1789
Researched May 2007 - no surfriding content.

Conway, Christiane:
Letters from the Isle of Man - The Bounty-Correspondence of Nessy and Peter Heywood.
The Manx Experience.
 (2005). ISBN 1-873120-77-X.

polynesian surfriding : menu

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1767
17 June. WALLIS.
The Dolphin
Discovery of Tahiti.

1768
6 April. BOUGAINVILLE.
The Etoile and the Boudeuse
The French navigator lands in Hitiaa.

1769
16 March.
Bougainville goes back to Brest, accompanied by Ahutoru, the first Tahitian to go to Europe.

17 April COOK.
The Endeavor
First landing at Venus Point

1772
November. BOENECHEA.
The Spanish navigator lands at Tautira; four Tahitians set out for Lima.

1773
COOK. Second voyage.
Omai is taken to London.

 1774
Boenechea comes back from Peru with three Tahitians.

1776
COOK. Third voyage.
The Resolution and the Discovery
Omai returns.

1779
Cook is massacred in Hawaii.

1788
BLIGH
The Bounty

1791

The Pandora
Mutineers arrested.

1789
Mutiny of the Bounty.

1791
VANCOUVER arrives in Tahiti.

1792
Bligh returns.
The Providence and the Assistant.

1797
Arrival of James Wilson.
Conversion of the population First landing to Christinanity; end of the preat Venus colonial period.

Early English and French interference in Tahitian affairs is, historically speaking, as important as the name POMARE, as these two powers were vying for the possession of new colonies.

In fact, the political position held by the first Pomare could have been due to the arms agreement concluded between foreigners and a local chief.

Before the Europeans arrived, the Teva lineage were gathered at the feet of the great chief of Papara, and exerted absolute power. Recently, the name Teva, originally belonging to a kind of federation, has been used to designate the former dynasty, as they had no real patronym at that time.

But it would seem that the Teva, weakened by wars with other powerful chiefs, were finally dominated by the Pomare who were equipped with European arms.

Leaving aside this debate as to which of the two great royal families had the most right to govern, let us note that Tu, the future Pomare 1, was only a local chief whose rank was inferior to that of the Papara chiefs when Cook first arrived in Tahiti.  Furthermore, he tries to hide the fact that he comes from the Tuamotu Islands as he considers it a blot on his escutcheon, the Paumotu being considered inferior to the Tahibans.

However, during that epoch, genealogy was of prime importance and Pomare managed to vindicate his claim to greater powers because of the number of relatives he had throughout the Society Islands.

His son, Pomare 11, known for his intelligence and outgoing personality, became King in 1815.  He realized how important the influence of the missionaries and British commerce was to be for him.  He asked to be baptized in 1812, thus abandoning his traditional Gods.  Before his despotic reign began, a religious war had broken out, but it was terminated by the victory of the Christian converts in the battle of Fei pi in 1815.

This defeat marked the theoretical end of the traditionalists and of the ancient r6gime.  From now on, popaa and the Pomare family became dominant.  In this way, the Arii, sages and priests, were to disappear along with idols and primitive tools. 

Byron's voyage in the Dolphin and Tamar

In 1764, George III persuaded the Admiralty to send out a new expedition to explore for new lands in the Southern hemisphere. It was to be under the command of Commodore John Byron, one of the survivors of the Anson expedition. The two ships used were the experimental copper-bottomed Dolphin and the Tamar. They were fitted out under the pretence that they were to be sent to the East Indies. They left Britain on the 3rd July 1764, stopping at Madeira, Las Canarias, and Cabo Verde, before crossing the Atlantic to Brazil. Late 1764 and early 1765 were spent surveying Patagonia, where they reported meeting with giant locals, the Straits of Magellan and the Falkland Islands, where Warrahs, the Falklands 'wolf', attacked some of the sailors. Getting through the Straits of Magellan and into the Pacific took six frustrating weeks with the ships often being blown back where they came from.

By the time the ships came to what is now French Polynesia, the crew were suffering quite badly from the scurvy, and this had a major influence on the conduct of the voyage through the Pacific. They were desperate to restock with fresh supplies, in particular coconuts and fresh vegetables for the sick. However, the local inhabitants opposed any landings with shows of arms, and coupled with the difficulty of anchoring near to the coral atolls, prompted Byron to name them the Islands of Disappointment. The ships went on to Pukapuka in the Northern Cook Islands, which Byron called the Island of Danger. Then whilst searching in the supposed latitude of the Isles of Solomon, they came across the uninhabited atoll of Atafu in the Tokelau Islands. Despite the difficulties due to lack of safe moorings, boats were sent to the island to pick up supplies. These included 200 coconuts and quite a few seabirds that were so tame as to be easily caught by the sailors. They then went on to the Gilbert Islands and the Marianas, before heading back to Britain via the Philippines, Batavia, the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. The whole journey had taken about 22 months by the time they reached Britain on the 9th May 1766. At the time this was the fastest ever circumnavigation of the globe, but the discoveries in the Pacific were very limited and the Admiralty made rapid plans to send the Dolphin back to the Pacific. 

The second Dolphin expedition was under the command of Samuel Wallis, and was accompanied by Captain Carteret in the sloop Swallow, and the store-ship Prince Frederick. Carteret had sailed with the first expedition, starting out on the Tamar before being promoted to First Lieutenant on the Dolphin. The Swallow was in no fit state to undertake the journey in the first place, and was separated from the Dolphin whilst entering the Pacific. It was presumed by Wallis that the ship had been lost and was reported as such when they reached Britain in May 1768. Cook believed this to be the case when he left in the Endeavour on his first voyage. Against all the odds, the Swallow had actually survived and whilst limping back to Britain made some important discoveries including Pitcairn Island, and around the Solomon Islands and Northern Islands of modern Papua New Guinea. The Swallow eventually got back to England in March 1769.

Wallis discovered the island of Tahiti, which he named King George's Island, and also the islands to the west of Samoa that now bear his name. 

Murray,
Thanks for the pointer, I first became of the board through a surf forum site where (apparently) the seller was looking for information to support his claim.
I checked the item out on the auction site, but unfortunately it seemed in excess that monthof my surfboard bugget for  (estimated US$600-80,000)